Q: was arrested & taken to jail & released. I was given a traffic ticket & complaint for DUI. Why isn’t my case show online

A: Likely one of two things are happening.

1. The officer has not filed the Complaint yet with the Court or it was recently filed and has not been processed yet in Court. Normally it will take a couple days from the arrest for the Complaint to be reflected in the court system online. Sometimes longer and I've also seen several instances where the officer files it even after the originally scheduled arraignment which causes some issues.

or

2. The jurisdiction/court that the charges are in is not one of the courts that gets reported on public access. For example, many justice courts you will need to go to the actual justice court page to find the case. Furthermore, for some courts you can only find the case online by going to the online portal specific to that court. Finally, some courts do not have their cases accessible online at all.

You should consult an attorney immediately because whether or not the case is showing online, it looks like you are facing criminal charges for DUI.

A: Hello, sorry to hear that you are facing DUI charges and are unable to locate the ticket online. This could happen for a couple different reasons.

First, it might simply be too soon before the information gets posted online. The online databases are not real-time, so they don't show information automatically as they have to sometimes go through review processes before they are posted.

Secondly, some courts do not post their charges online so finding them is not going to be possible online and you will have to contact the court directly by phone or in person to find your case.

Third, there is a complex legal term call long-form charges that happen in AZ. Even though you received a ticket, the charges still have to be submitted to the prosecutor and then the prosecutor submits them to the court. If the prosecutor doesn't submit the charges, then the charges will not appear. Even when you call the court, they will tell you that they don't have the charges and your court date on the ticket could be cancelled. Always be sure to double check with the court or our law team if you believe that court has been cancelled. If you are wrong, the judge will issue a warrant if you don't appear.

If you need help hiring a lawyer, please contact my team and we will get you set up with a free consultation. 602-900-7625.

Here are the two most common places to find your charges:

County and (most) City Court: https://apps.supremecourt.az.gov/publicaccess/caselookup.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1

Justice Courts (Maricopa County): http://justicecourts.maricopa.gov/FindACase/casehistory.aspx